Local Govt elections will be on time, says Kamla
Local Government elections will be held on time as it is constitutionally due by October 26, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar said yesterday.
“It must be called before October 26 and we will honour the Constitution and the law, for the first time we will call it within the time-frame,” Persad-Bissessar said when asked if she had set an election date.
She was speaking during a by-election walkabout on John Peter Road, Charlieville, in support of the United National Congress.
The Prime Minister also responded to concerns raised by coalition member the Congress of the People (COP) with respect to the UNC’s non-participation in Local Government candidates negotiations.
The COP issued a release yesterday stating that on Wednesday negotiations for allocation of seats to be contested by the parties of the People’s Partnership in each of the 14 Local Government Corporations were scheduled to start at the COP Operations Centre in Chaguanas but the meeting did not come off.
“The United National Congress, to the disappointment of the other partners in the People’s Partnership indicated, on the day of the meeting, that their negotiation team had not yet been finalised and therefore was unable to attend. It is the COP’s view that this negotiation is critical and should be completed in a timely fashion in order to facilitate all preparations for the imminent Local Government Elections. The COP is hopeful that going forward there will be no further disappointment,” the release stated.
Persad-Bissessar said yesterday that COP political leader Prakash Ramadhar and party chairman Carolyn Seepersad-Bachan raised the issue with her after the Cabinet meeting and she told them both that her focus now was on the Chaguanas West by-election.
On the by-election campaign with UNC candidate Khadijah Ameen, Persad-Bissessar said, “I’m sending a message to the people of Chaguanas West, stay in Government, vote UNC because that is your only passport right now to stay in Government.”
Today, former government minister Jack Warner, now interim leader of the Independent Liberal Party (ILP), will hold a public meeting in Caroni where he has promised a “green surprise”.
Asked whether she expects any of her ministers to be crossing the floor, Persad-Bissessar said, “I await to see the green surprise and as I said yesterday and I repeat, it is a free country, I muzzle no one. I’m not a dictator, people are free to go where they want. It is a democracy.”
What happened to constitutional amendments for fixed election dates?? That was an election promise so we don’t have a repeat of PNM postponing elections for 4 years.